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Beacon Street Diary blog

A Summer Vacation

June 29, 2016

At the beginning of summer, we find ourselves daydreaming about summer road trips, escapes to cabins and cottages, and the afternoons when we might slip away to the beach. Others, including some of the library staff, travel to conferences and industry meetings.

One summer, over 100 years ago, a group of businessmen made a very long journey: across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Seattle, Washington. Shortly after their arrival, they were photographed in Spokane. Their shiny top hats create a striking contrast against the rough logs of the building behind them. In the upper right-hand area of the photo, you can see the curious face of a child, straining for a glance of the visitors.

This group arrived just over fifty years after the Treaty of Amity and Commerce opened up diplomatic and commercial relations between Japan and the United States. The exchange was facilitated by Eiichi Shibusawa, a prolific Japanese entrepreneur and an advocate for stronger ties with the West.

The visitors met with President William H. Taft, J.P Morgan, and Thomas Edison among many others famous Americans of the day. They began in Seattle and traveled by train across the United States for three months, ending on the east coast. Along the way, they stopped in Spokane and posed for a group photo.

How the photograph wound up in our collection is a mystery to the library's current staff, but they speculate that it was among the papers given to us by a minister of missionary.

Comments

This famous business mission from Japan called "Honorary Commercial Mission from Japan to the United States, " 渡米実業団 in Japanese. They visited many cities from August 31 to December 6 in 1909. They visited Spokane in September 11 and 12, in 1909. The mission was organized by Mr. Buei Nakano, President of Tokyo Chamber of Commerce(the third gentleman of the third row from the front). The head of the delegation was Eiichi Shibusawa (fourth gentleman of the second row).